South African Minister of State Security Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba makes it clear that while the Jewish community is under no particular threat, the department of state security takes seriously its mandate to protect the country’s citizens.

Lawyers are preparing criminal and civil charges following one of the darkest weeks of anti-Semitism in South Africa. There have been a slew of vile incidents that sent shock waves through the community.

The SA Friends of the Beit Halochem Zahal Disabled Veterans Organisation was established in Johannesburg in 1982, its primary goal being to help and support Zahal disabled veterans by raising funds to help them return and resume their normal lives as soon as possible.

Dr Ali Bacher, former South African cricket captain and administrator, was one of the five recipients of the 2018 Steve Tshwete Lifetime Achievement Awards at the SA Sport Awards held in Bloemfontein on Sunday night.

Devotion to the cause of the State of Israel flourishes in the most unlikely places, even in societies where the Jewish presence is small to non-existent. Such is the case in Mozambique, where the work of Beth-El Associacao Crista Amigos De Israel - Mozambican Christian Friends of Israel - testifies to how much can be achieved by those inspired by their Christian faith to promote the Israeli cause, despite adverse conditions.

JNF’s unique “Blue Boy Box” now lives at King David Linksfield Pre-Primary so that children of each generation learn the importance of tzedakah (charity or welfare). It is the responsibility of Jews all over the world to build Israel, develop it and nurture it as the home of the Jewish nation

“Knowledge is Light” was our school motto when I was a child in Durban. The importance of education was made clear to us from as far back as I can remember. It wasn’t taken for granted. A good education was a privilege.

Late on Tuesday, a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect. While at the time of writing the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) had still not confirmed the existence of such a truce, Israeli citizens living in the south of the country were told they could return home and to “normalcy”.

The Israeli gymnastics team was out in full force at 48th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships that began at Aspire Dome in Doha, Qatar, on Thursday. There are five males and two females in the team headed by new Israeli sensation Artem Dolgopyat. The others are Alexander Shatilov, Ilan Korchak, Andrey Medvedev, and Michael Sorokine, while the women are Ofir Netzer and Meitar Lavy.

As I was heading home on Tuesday, I heard on ChaiFM that 460 rockets had been fired from Gaza into Israel since late Sunday. That is an outrageous number. If every one of them hit inhabited areas, thousands of Israelis would have been killed.

“The president is not directly responsible for acts of domestic terrorism, but he should be more careful with his language.” That’s the way the Economist headlined its report on the horrific Pittsburgh killings just more than two weeks ago.

With Prince William’s historic visit to Israel this week, all eyes have been trained on the Jewish capital. It may have taken 70 years, but the first official visit by a member of the British Royal family began in Israel on Monday, when William, the Duke of Cambridge, arrived in Tel Aviv.

Some 5 600 emissaries (shluchim) from Chabad-Lubavitch from all over the world gathered at the Pier 8 warehouse in Brooklyn, New York this week for the opening of their four-day annual international conference and banquet, 75 years after the arrival of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, from Europe.

“The greatness of our nation is that our people are great. We are a nation of heroes, of people with good and decent moral fibre who will not tolerate our country being plundered!” So said Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein in Pretoria this morning.“This is a struggle for accountability and justice,” Goldstein told the crowd (which included prominent Jewish CEOs like Adrian Gore, Stephen Koseff and Michael Katz). “This struggle is about sovereignty. The power of the people always triumphs in the end.”

Marlene Bethlehem re-elected global ambassador of Jewish culture

South African Jewish communal stalwart Marlene Bethlehem was this week re-elected President of the global Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture (MFJC) for a second two-year tenure.

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OWN CORRESPONDENT | Jun 21, 2018

For 52 years, this foundation has been promoting the global regeneration of Jewish culture by supporting, developing and connecting the next generation of scholars and leaders in Jewish communities around the world. Based in New York, the foundation has supported 14 000 scholars, artists, filmmakers, rabbis, and Jewish communal leaders since it launched in 1965.

Bethlehem, a past Chair and President of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), was nominated and appointed unopposed for the prestigious and influential position.

She said she was honoured to be re-elected to fulfil the “sacred task” of “training Jewish people between the ages of 25 and 40 to provide social capital for the Jewish world” through the foundation’s Nahum Goldmann Fellowship (NGF).

Bethlehem has been associated with the foundation for many years, and was instrumental in fostering close and mutually beneficial relationships with the SAJBD, which she represented. She has a long history of communal leadership, including being Chair and President of the Jewish Women’s Benevolent Society, Chair of Jewish Social Services, and Chair of the Rabbi Cyril Harris Community Centre.

“Over the past two years, there have been enormous changes in the ideology of the organisation,” she said. “We decided to be far more public and, to this end, I spoke in Germany, not only on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, but I also addressed the Lower Saxony Parliament.

“In August, we will be holding the NGF programme in Hanover, Germany. There are now more than 100 000 Jews in Germany. My plan is to carry a message of reconciliation to them, while acknowledging efforts to repair treacherous acts of horrifying history.”

At the opening address of the Foundation in New York last weekend, Bethlehem said: “The dreams of our great founder Dr Nahum Goldmann have been realised. His most cherished goal was to enhance the Jewish cultural background of the community’s most gifted young leaders for future leadership roles in the community.”

And, having assisted more than 14 000, “these scholars from many disciplines serve the communal needs of the Jewish people on six continents”.

She spoke of the NGF, the flagship of the Foundation, as having become “the crown in our efforts at creating a very unique bonding, known as Klal Israel”. They have held 29 international and mini fellowships over 52 years.

Bethlehem quoted Professor Steven Windemeuller of the Hebrew Union College of Religion in Los Angeles after taking part in three NGF programmes as a faculty member. “The Nahum Goldmann Felllowship may represent the single most important global Jewish network that exists today.”

Bethlehem warned that the Foundation shouldn’t rest on past achievements, and “must strengthen efforts for the future, to continue to grow the social capital of our people around the world”.